The BBC micro:bit is a tiny gadget that was distributed to about a million students in British schools earlier this year as a way to encourage kids to learn to code.
A few months later, the BBC partnered with retailers in the UK to sell the devices to anyone in willing to spend £13.
Now the BBC reports a new foundation is taking over the project in hopes of taking the micro:bit international.
Unlike Raspberry Pi’s tiny, educational computing devices, the micro:bit isn’t a fully functional personal computer. You can’t use it to run office software or watch videos, for instance.
Instead, it’s a tiny, device with 25 LED lights, a few buttons, a variety of sensors, and Bluetooth. You can connect it to a computer to program the micro:bit so it can be used to play simple games, perform measurements, and more.
The plan is to make the devices available across Europe by the end of the year before expanding to North America and China in 2017. The hardware will also get a spec bump before the micro:bit goes on sale in those overseas markets, including new sensors and a more powerful processor.
There’s no word on what that will do to the price.
There are already ways to buy a micro:bit outside of the UK. Several sellers are offering the little computing kits on eBay for around $20 and up.
